者 (zhě): (after a verb or adjective) one who (is) ..., (after a noun) person involved in ..., -er

者 (zhě) is a Chinese character meaning “(after a verb or adjective) one who (is) ....” Classified as HSK Level 3 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 耂 (structural) and 日 (structural). It ranks #103 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. (after a verb or adjective) one who (is) ...
  2. (after a noun) person involved in ...
  3. -er

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

Practice writing 者 with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 者

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
或者conjunctionhuò zhěor3
记者nounjì zhěreporter4
作者nounzuò zhěauthor4
患者nounhuàn zhěpatient6
读者noundú zhěreader4
志愿者nounzhì yuàn zhěvolunteer5
学者nounxué zhěscholar5
后者nounhòu zhěthe latter6
消费者nounxiāo fèi zhěconsumer5
前者nounqián zhěthe former (i.e. the one mentioned first)6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
受害者nounshòu hài zhěcasualty
死者nounsǐ zhěthe dead
幸存者nounxìng cún zhěsurvivor
失败者nounshī bài zhěloser
目击者nounmù jī zhěeyewitness
两者pronounliǎng zhěboth of them
使者nounshǐ zhěemissary
参赛者nouncān sài zhěcompetitor
胜利者nounshèng lì zhěvictor
爱好者nounài hào zhělover (of art, sports etc)
领导者nounlǐng dǎo zhěleader
旅行者nounlǚ xíng zhětraveler
支持者nounzhī chí zhěsupporter
告密者gào mì zhětell-tale
行者nounxíng zhěpedestrian
103
Total compounds
1
As first character
97
As last character
2
As middle character

者 appears in 103 compound words: 1 as the first character, 97 as the last, and 2 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Strongest Collocations

Characters that most frequently co-occur with 者 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

患huàn
0.55767,640 co-occurrences
忍rěn
0.50622,556 co-occurrences
或huò
0.492135,676 co-occurrences
染rǎn
0.48432,698 co-occurrences
状zhuàng
0.44024,674 co-occurrences
记jì
0.42048,388 co-occurrences
作zuò
0.418169,796 co-occurrences
勇yǒng
0.41715,490 co-occurrences
受shòu
0.41065,758 co-occurrences
使shǐ
0.41090,188 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (10)

读者文摘dú zhě wén zhāiHSK 5+

Reader's Digest

phrase
更有甚者gèngyǒushènzhěHSK 4+

what is more; what's worse; worse still

phrase
骄者必败jiāo zhě bì bàiHSK 4+

pride goes before a fall (idiom)

phrase
来者不拒láizhěbùjùHSK 4+

to refuse nobody; to accept all requests

phrase
旁观者清páng guān zhě qīngHSK 4+

an outsider can see things more clearly or objectively than those involved (idiom)

phrase
始作俑者shǐzuòyǒngzhě

the initiator of a bad practice; the creator of a bad precedent; the person who started a bad or undesirable event

phrase
适者生存shìzhě shēngcúnHSK 4+

survival of the fittest

phrase
新闻记者xīn wén jì zhěHSK 3+

journalist

phrase

Showing 8 of 10 idioms containing 者.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

这位记者是一位经验丰富的采访者,采访过很多名人。

Zhè wèi jìzhě shì yī wèi jīngyàn fēngfù de cǎifǎng zhě, cǎifǎng guo hěn duō míngrén.

This reporter is an experienced interviewer who has interviewed many celebrities.

百度新闻Feb 2026

...口”到“厂门口”,首批数百名来沪务工劳动者“..

. . . kǒu dào hǎn mén kǒu , shǒu pī shǔ bǎi míng lái hù wù gōng láo dòng zhě . .

... The first batch of hundreds of migrant workers came to Shanghai to work":

百度新闻Feb 2026

也门安全部队向反政府示威者开火 造成至少12人伤亡

yě mén ān quán bù duì xiàng fǎn zhèng fǔ shì wēi zhě kāi huǒ zào chéng zhì shǎo 1 2 rén shāng wáng

Yemeni security forces opened fire on anti-government demonstrators, killing at least 12 people

百度新闻Feb 2026

致敬坚守者:宝山这些身影温暖了我们的团圆年|在宝山...

zhì jìng jiān shǒu zhě : bǎo shān zhè xiē shēn yǐng wēn nuǎn le wǒ men de tuán yuán nián zài bǎo shān . . .

Salute to the perseverance: These figures of Baoshan warmed our reunion year|In Baoshan...

百度新闻Feb 2026

新春走基层·驻外记者回乡手记丨在中国,感受火箭一飞..

xīn chūn zǒu jī céng zhù wài jì zhě huí xiāng shǒu jì 丨 zài zhōng guó , gǎn shòu huǒ jiàn yī fēi . .

The new year is the first time that a foreign correspondent has returned to his hometown....

百度新闻Feb 2026

暖意融融 走进上海机场建设者小镇

nuǎn yì róng róng zǒu jìn shǎng hǎi jī chǎng jiàn shè zhě xiǎo zhèn

Warmth and Harmony: A Visit to the Shanghai Airport Construction Workers' Village

Tatoeba

那位求职者能胜任工作吗?

Nà wèi qiúzhízhě néng shèngrèn gōngzuò ma?

Does the applicant have suitable abilities to carry out the job?

Tatoeba

你钱或者信用卡带来没有?

Nǐ qián huòzhě xìnyòngkǎ dàilái méiyǒu?

Did you bring cash or your credit card with you?

Tatoeba

谁不喜欢反叛者呢?

Shéi bù xǐhuan fǎnpàn zhě ne?

Who doesn't love a rebel?

Tatoeba

这本小说的作者是谁?

Zhè běn xiǎoshuō de zuòzhě shì shéi?

Who's the author of this story?

Character Family

老 Radical Family — Characters sharing the old radical

Related Characters

Homophones — Characters pronounced zhě

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 者 (zhě) mean in Chinese?
者 (zhě) primarily means "(after a verb or adjective) one who (is) ...." It is classified as HSK Level 3, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #103 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 者 have?
者 is written with 8 strokes. The correct stroke order matters for recognition and handwriting speed — practice with the animated guide above to build proper technique.
What is the radical of 者?
The radical associated with 者 is 老 (old). This radical appears in many characters related to old.
What are the components of 者?
者 is composed of: 耂 (structural), 日 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿸耂日 with a surround-from-upper-left layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 者?
Common words with 者 include: 或者 (huò zhě, "or"); 受害者 (shòu hài zhě, "casualty"); 死者 (sǐ zhě, "the dead"); 记者 (jì zhě, "reporter"); 幸存者 (xìng cún zhě, "survivor"). There are over 103 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 者 (zhě)?
Several characters share the pronunciation zhě: 这 (this), 着 (-ing, to wear), 哲 (wise), 遮 (to cover up (a shortcoming)), and 2 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 者 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 者 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 者 with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear spoken pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.

Character data sourced from Unihan (Unicode Consortium), SUBTLEX-CH frequency corpus (Cai & Brysbaert, 2010), and Make Me a Hanzi (stroke data). Collocation strength measured via NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information). Verified by the HanziFeed linguistics team.

HSK classification follows the HSK 3.0 Standard (Center for Language Education and Cooperation, CLEC, 2022 revision). Idiom data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Data last verified: March 2026.